Manila: One soldier was killed, 12 communist rebels slain, and seven soldiers were wounded in three separate clashes in the southern Philippines, police and military reports said.

A soldier was killed during clashes between government forces and members of the new People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the 45-year-old Communist Party of the Philippines in Hamogaway Village, Prosperidad town Agusan del Sur Province on Tuesday morning, the regional military office said in a report.

At the same time, 12 NPA rebels and four Manobo tribal warriors were killed when the leftist group attacked the house of Datu Kalpit in Sta. Irene village, Prosperidad town, Agusan del Sur Province on Tuesday morning, the military said.

Seven soldiers were wounded when NPA members attacked the Army’s 46th and 25th Infantry Battalions in Laak town, Compostela Valley, around 7pm on Monday, Senior Superintendent Abraham Rojas, Compostela Valley police chief said in a report that reached the police headquarters in suburban Quezon City.

The NPA used bombs and high powered firearms during the attack, Rojas said, adding the wounded soldiers were brought to Compostela Valley provincial hospital in Laak for treatment.

No one was hurt when a roadside bomb went off in La Filipina Village in Tagum City as a military truck that transported construction materials and soldiers passed by. The vehicle’s windshield was damaged, said Capt. Ernest Carolina, of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division.

The communist National Democratic Front, a coalition of leftist groups including the CPP-NPA, and the Philippine government have been holding on and off peace talks since 1992.

They have initialled several substantive agreements but they have not yet forged a ceasefire agreement.

Formal talks were stalled since 2010, several months after President Benigno Aquino became head of state.

The NDF demanded for the release of hundreds of political prisoners as a condition for the continuation of formal peace talks. But the Philippine government also demanded for the forging of a ceasefire agreement for the continuation of the talks.

The CPP-NPA controls a major part of far-flung and poor villages which have no access to government services. In the 60s, the CPP-NPA reached 20,000, but it dwindled to 5,000 after the ouster of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos and the ascendancies of Corazon Aquino to the presidency in 1986. The group has remained strong because of class inequity: 70 per cent of Filipinos live in poverty.